Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
16 months at the AADRL –an understanding of a lifetime
Time flies and we fly with it.
A year in the DRL glimpsed through in a blink of an eye. Opinions changed, thoughts moulded and what have I gained? This passage of mine is going to address 3 agendas starting with my experience of education in architecture followed by an analysis on contemporary education and finally revealing a known truth of my understanding of architecture. I must confess that through this article there might be harsh comments but I feel it necessary to say it as the truth is always uglier than the reality projected.
Opportunities
The Design Research Laboratory at the AA DRL was indeed one of the most diverse programs i have known so far with opportunities and liberties (in the right sense) which widens up the horizon of people from various nationalities who come together and work collectively. And this experience however is combined with intense workshops and one big thesis agenda in groups of 4 that one chooses. The platform this year was not just my project but in total 5 different studios addressing different issues. During this we used the latest available machines i.e. laser cutting, cnc milling, 3d print and at times building your own to present ideas and concepts which could project the possibilities of buildings/systems through research from the studio, calling engineers and flashing online Google searches.
Education and youth
However, through all this I was left with more curiosity than ever with a simple question – What does Masters in Architecture really mean? Or does it mean anything at all more than ‘awareness’. It’s not the AA i am pointing at but in this period of 16 months in London, I was fortunate to find time and meet the MBA’s and PHD’s. It can be summed up into 2 categories – a> people doing the study to reach higher position at work and b> people in mission to gain higher intellectual status in terms of competitive argumentation and also to receive awareness of the availability of material around, both being equally justified for a contemporary human survival 2010. However the world we know today from iPods, F1 cars and the fantastic buildings which we click touristy pictures of, did not create from either of the above categories of thought. It came from the 3rd group of people who believed in physically experimenting and working through their ambitions or chasing a belief. They are neither leaders nor followers but people who are not scared to test... the test of reality. Mysteriously most inventions came from the sudden accidents at work as the mind cannot invent thoughts, it has a potential to only reconfigure existing. But yet look at all the things we have built around us. The credit goes to constant tests, obnoxious beliefs and accidents than the individual mind as portrayed in books, cinema, news and institutions around us - they share a common value of either entertainment or employment.
Patience and architecture
Architecture is not entertainment! It has to do more...it is an art that reveals a truth- the truth of our existence, the truth of a material, the truth of structure and also the truth of a belief no matter how crazy it is. It is an art that goes beyond a canvas, an art that needs all real sides and not one photogenic angle for sale, an art that creates reality but yet is compassionate enough to accommodate the user and deliver spaces we never experienced before. It has every need to be REAL!
Every building is not architecture, yet they all will exist and rightly so as society needs both- construction and architecture. But, one needs to honestly choose and if the choice is architecture then the universe is still unexplored. It requires a personal belief in the kind of work, time and patience to follow it through the reality of being (real buildings). Universities/institutions are only platforms of awareness and if I did become aware of something in past 16 months ....it wasn’t architecture but understanding that I must find my own pace, rhythm and vocabulary...To follow-up something that i believe in – 'there is no such thing as architecture but what will always exist is ‘my architecture’ through my work – on earth'.
“Who so shall be a man, must be a non conformist, Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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